11.30.2017

End of the Month Music Bitchfest - November 2017

Had spinal surgery on the 18th of this month, but right before that, on the 17th, I received my review copy of the new TMBG. And, although I am embargoed...it's fantastic. Look for the full review in early January.

Aside from the new TMBG, I've really just been listening to those NIN EPs, the new St. Vincent, and the new Beck.

Opinions have emerged further on all four releases: Not The Actual Events is really good (received my CD of that recently and it's a perfect interpretation of the vinyl package and art, just smaller), but Add Violence is one of their best, tightest releases ever, Masseduction might be surpassing St. Vincent as my favorite album of hers*, and Colors is still lacking a lot for me. While I understand where Beck's in making such an album, I just don't love the album.

In December, I'm seeing St. Vincent as she wraps up the US leg of her Fear The Future tour, Mother Feather at Knitting Factory, and TMBG's triumphant return to the stage on both the 30th and 31st at the Music Hall of Williamsburg...where, hopefully, they'll play "Last Wave", as I need to stand amongst a crowd of people and sing that chorus out loud.
Oh man I can't wait 'til folks get to hear I Like Fun...

Also...there might be something from Nine Inch Nails on December 5th. Not the new EP, but, if not a song, then at least a tease, update, or image introducing yet another art style over which fans can get hard. Reznor and Ross are going to be on Song Exploder, but the song being exploded (?) is "The Lovers", so...who knows...I could just be wrong.

* Which is thrilling as I can't think of many bands whose subsequent albums get better and escape that godawful stereotype of their-first-was-their-best.

11.01.2017

End of the Month Music Bitchfest - October 2017

I know the world is ending not because I'm listening to the new Marilyn Manson more than the new Beck, but because I'm enjoying the new Marilyn Manson more than the new Beck.

Beck
I wrote my review and it's a goddamn whirlwind. Now, a few weeks after having played nothing but this, the new St. Vincent, the new Manson, and a few Stephen King audiobooks* on repeat...I think I get it.
Beck says he wanted to make something joyous, something that felt good. Joy and feeling good are not always complex.
So. There.
When I want complex joy from Beck, I'll listen to "Milk & Honey", or "Debra", or "Dirty Dirty". When I was simply joy from Beck, simple like bright swathes of primary colors, I guess I'll listen to Colors. These are shitty, shitty times in which we live, Beck is only trying to help.

St. Vincent
After her most recent, self-titled release, I was curious as to how she'd top herself. Masseduction is, at least, as good as St. Vincent. Plus, "Slow Disco" is so beautiful that it hurts to listen to it. At one point, I looked up how old Annie Clark was, thinking she was, like, 25 or something, and it somehow made me feel better that she was making all this amazing shit and was only a year younger than me. I'm seeing her in December in Brooklyn and I'd suggest you do as well.

They Might Be Giants
Album title, release date, and first single have been revealed! I Like Fun (excellent title) drops January 19th (unless you're in the IFC or reviewing it...like me) and "I Left My Body" is a pretty solid introduction. Check it out here.

Nine Inch Nails
TR and AR released their cover (although I'd call it more of a reinterpretation because the original is less than three minutes long and theirs is seven and change) of John Carpenter's theme to Halloween. IT'S HERE FOR YOU TO LISTEN TO! TO! Shit gets cray around the six and a half minute mark.

Marilyn Manson also released the most Marilyn Manson-ass Marilyn Manson video ever. It's for his track "SAY10" and it features a chick masturbating and the devil and Johnny Depp and that rubber wall thing and slow motion blood explosions and just fucking everything but Twiggy.

Between those three albums, a quick revisitation of Reznor and Ross' Vietnam score, and some vintage Tori, that is, literally, all I've been listening to this month. But...a note on packaging***...

Over the past few weeks, I've received physical copies of the deluxe vinyl version of the new St. Vincent, CD and vinyl editions of the new Marilyn Manson, thht awesome-rad-cocaine-on-your-cock-and-asshole colored vinyl version of the new Beck I'd mentioned a while back, and, finally, the latest CD from Nine Inch Nails**, and I was blown away by some of what I saw. These days, a special package for a deluxe or limited edition vinyl isn't that crazy; you're paying more and should receive more for your money, but, as Trent Reznor loves to remind people at every turn NO ONE BUYS CDS BECAUSE FUCK CDS EITHER BUY MY RECORDS ON VINYL OR STREAM THEM BUT NOTHING ELSE. NOTHING ELSE. NO. FUCK YOU ANDY. ONE OR THE FUCKING OTHER. However, while he might hate them, the packaging for Add Violence is tight. Nothing flashy, just a perfect and concise package for the EP. On one side of each page you've got the track title and on the other you've got the lyrics, white text on a black background. The middle of the booklet has a small taste of the elaborate and insane physical component, then back to basics for the rest of it. The disc itself is red with black text. On the back of the booklet and the disc itself, the NIN logo and "halo thirty one", printed clearly. In other words, Reznor didn't phone it it, even though he doesn't believe people buy them anymore.
So, thanks.

Then, shit got interesting...Manson's last one, The Pale Emperor, came in a simply digi-pack with no liner notes and an exterior that was akin to sandpaper, meant to damage any surfaces it touched. I always thought that was cool and a pretty neat trick for Manson to pull. When Heaven Upside Down arrived, I opened things up**** and found one, single insert: one on side, the album cover, on the other, the geometry Manson has embraced this time around, nothing more. I was pissed. On one hand, I want to fully experience the release; since my first cassettes, I would sit down with a magnifying glass and pore over the liner notes, absorbing them, devouring them, trying to get a better understanding of the other elements that made up what an album was. On the other hand, I wanted to hear what the fuck Manson was saying. I'd say...40% of the album is garbled by Manson's throat-shredding yowls and I was wondering (as I always do these days) if it happened organically or because the lines were silly and he was trying to hide something. And I don't trust any of those lyrics sites because, without the official lyrics, everything is fan fiction. All that to say...I was pissed. Then, I took a closer look at the jewel case. It was the type of case usually reserved for a 2-disc release, that is to say there was a "page" on which the CD was set instead of the back cover. That's when I saw it...the back cover was the booklet. Now, I mentioned this to my wife and she said that wasn't anything special. Personally, I'm 36 and have been buying CDs for 23 years and I'd never seen anyone utilize this back space in such a fashion. Yes, Tool and a few others have "hidden" artwork back there, but never a whole booklet. And, on top of that fun little revelation, there was the book itself; the lyrics were laid out as bible verse and the paper stock was that insubstantial stuff on which bibles are printed.
Wow.
Manson.
Well done.
For a guy who'd just been releasing jewel cases with folded inserts for a decade, this was something special.

YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE WAS SPECIAL???? ST. VINCENT'S DELUXE LP OF MASSEDUCTION! Honestly? I was legitimately confused when I first opened it. But I was also on painkillers, so...I choose to blame that.
The whole thing comes in a vinyl envelope. Inside that envelope is the cover art on a huge, double-sided poster which serves as housing for all the stuff. The stuff that I just mentioned a few words ago consists of the record itself, yellow (I'd have preferred the pink, but never mind), and in its own slipcover, a sticker sheet which is maybe a little odd, and a really great, zine-y booklet containing pictures and the lyrics. It reminds me of something from Fight Club, now that I think about it...
The package
The record

Next, the crazy fuck-my-ass-with-your-awesome-rad-coke-covered-dick deluxe edition of Beck's Colors. Whether you like the album or not, you cannot deny that Capitol is aching to make this release a thing*****. Aside from the numbered enamel pin (I'm a patch man and this pin isn't changing that), the kaleidoscope (seriously), and the fucking hexagonal, glass prism (thing weighs like eight pounds), the records (two of them, red as the devil's taint) are in this semi-customizable slipcover with four colored transparencies all coming together to form the dude, just watch the video. Also, the booklet is laid out fantastically. This is actually worth all the hubbub.
The packaging
The useless physical objects
The records

And, lastly, because of the awesome CD packaging for the new Manson, I grabbed the vinyl edition...which was nothing more than red vinyl, and a single lyrics sheet. Nothing cool. Something about putting all that effort into the CD but not the vinyl feels weird...

And on that odd and disquieting note...


* My professional opinion as a voice actor and a three-time audiobook narrator: George Guidall is awful (Dark Tower series), Steven Weber is awesome (It).

** ...who seems to have parted ways with Manson, perhaps because of the passing of Daisy Berkowitz.

*** Strap in, motherfuckers!1!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

**** ASTONISHED to find there was no parental advisory sticker on the album...the album which features a track clearly titled "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE"...did Tipper Gore die?

***** #CustomHashtag